Hello Project Guide to Self Radicalization

• I wrote this guide with it to be a simple guide to self-radicalize future wotas. If you disagree with me, please make a better graphic, I just want to make it easy as possible for new people to get involved.
  If you are just getting into Hello Project, things can be overwhelming. So I am writing a mini-guide on my recommendations for how to get involved with the groups. In short you pick a group, then pick a girl, then cheer her on with every release, seeing her struggles and her successes.
  So start with youtube and just watch like three or four videos for each group. After you decide you like a groups aesthetic, its probably best to get right into the dvd magazines to start seeing the group’s personality and to see the chemistry the different girls have with each other.
  A dvd magazine is a video that is about an hour long that has the girls doing something other than music, it may be back stage conversations, or on stage MC’s, it could be athletic competitions, it could be punishment games, or the girls going on a vacation, or the girls eating food, etc…. dvd magazines are also the cheapest video you can buy, but if you ask around in communities, you may find people who will loan you a copy or make you a copy of their dvd magazine if you don’t have money. Check the Hello!Project wiki for what the latest dvd magazine for your group is.  After watching dvd magazines, its way easier to identify the girls in the group because you see them for extended periods of time, unlike the cuts in a music video. In my opinion, the best way to really start engaging in the community is to pick one or two girls who you want to cheer on and then watch their growth. Check out their member blogs and any photobooks they may have. Cheering on the idols and watching their growth is probably the most rewarding part of being a fan of an idol. After you pick your favorite members, then you can start learning about the other things they do, and all the devious ways Hello!project has devised to part you from your money. But I would not suggest spending any money on a group until you know at least half of it’s member’s names and colors. Also do not forget about the Kenshuusei (there is a Tokyo and a Hokkaido Kenshuusei), it can be especially rewarding to watch their journeys.
  Before you spend any money, become involved in the English fan communities. There are many, and the community may be dispersed, but do not become discouraged, you are not alone. In my opinion, you should spend a lot of time at the Hello!Project Wiki, its good, detailed, and has immaculate English records of what things Hello!Project releases. If you like forums you can check out hello!online, jplop, mm-bbs, or JPHiP. for news on H!P you can check out Hello Project News Service.  For images, tumblr is still pretty active. The Hello!Project twitter community is quite active. There are app-based communities like discord and amino. You can join the discord channels Hello Project Fans, here, and Hello Project Chat, here. There are translation sites like wota in translation, project blog, project hello, and hello project radio.
  When you are ready to spend money there are a lot of ways to do it. You can spend money on music, live performances, videos, merchandising, or pictures. Hello Project releases music both physically and digitally (sometimes only digitally) in single and album formats. Main benefit of albums is they have new songs you have never heard recorded, main benefit of the singles is you get instrumental versions of the songs (which are fantastic! You SHOULD listen to them!). Petit Best is also an annual sampler of that years’ Hello Project music, so its an album that collects some releases for all the groups into one CD. Petit Best will sometimes be the only way to get the digital releases on CD. Each group has a number of live performances they do a year, seasonal tours (spring and autumn) along with summer and winter hello project concert tour with all of Hello!Project together, and an annual Hina-fest (notable for its random shuffle units). In addition they do other live performances for Fanclub members throughout the year. In my opinion as a music wota, the live performances are really some of the best content Hello!Project produces. There are many videos that are released including concert videos, dvd magazines, fan club videos, gravure videos (IV) for individuals and groups (every member does a gravure video as an introduction, but as time goes on they may do gravure videos that are not related to photobooks, and generally photobook making of dvds are a great way to get to know the idols themselves. Merchandising is some of the hardest stuff to get your hands on as an overseas fan, in general you have to get lucky online or attend their overseas shows. Hello project sells pictures of the idols in a variety of formats, most are available in limited quantities online.
  Anyways, I hope this helps someone, as I am still learning about how to be a fan in this community as I type. Good luck and may your oshi become a center in her group… Amen, lol.